Algeria versus Egypt World Cup play-off is the 'mother of all matches'

We have come to that fevered point in the last-ditch scramble to reach the
World Cup finals when the time-honoured protest, "but it's only a game",
is drowned by a familiar madness.

Anger: Algerian fans demonstrate after hearing that their compatriots had been wounded after the World Cup qualifier with EgyptPhoto: REUTERS

By Ian Chadband, Chief Sports Correspondent

7:45AM GMT 18 Nov 2009

Nowhere is the lament more hopelessly inadequate than in Sudan where the most explosive, politically-charged football match to be played anywhere in the world this year will roar into life on Wednesday night.

Algeria versus Egypt was already one of the game's most bitter national rivalries, a north African feud nurtured over more than a generation by lurid tales of riots and bust-ups, all headed by the 1989 qualifier which ended with the Algerian star Lakhdar Belloumi supposedly shoving a glass in the face of the Egyptian team doctor, who lost an eye.

Yet now a uniquely incendiary set of circumstances, leading up to this all-or-nothing affair on neutral territory, has racheted the tension. "The Mother of all Football Matches," as the billing for the play-off in Omdurman, on the banks of the Nile, inevitably has it.

It is a game football really doesn't need. "We play the game for fun, not to create a war," Egypt coach Hassan Shehata sighed. If only the Algerian football federation chief, Mohammed Raouraoua, had been listening; instead, he chose to light the bonfire again last night by blaming his Egyptian counterpart, Samir Zaher, for causing the violence which disfigured Saturday's encounter between the same teams.

Just what Fifa didn't need. Nervous as kittens about the potential repercussions tonight, how the governing body must be bemoaning that it did not have the wherewithal to sort out the final African qualifying spot when the teams played in Cairo at the weekend.

Related Articles

Instead, all it got was a match played against the backdrop of players being attacked by fans, governments appealing for protection for their citizens, supporters suffering injuries and violent clashes between Egyptian and Algerian communities spreading as far afield as France. All this and absolutely nothing decided on the field.

For when Emad Meteab headed home in the 95th minute to earn Egypt a 2-0 victory, this astonishingly dramatic finish ensured the old foes were left level on points, goal difference and goals scored. The only solution? The play-off from hell.

No wonder Fifa, in an eve-of-match statement, again appealed for "fair play and responsibility", a plea immediately torpedoed by Raouraoua's inflammatory suggestion that Zaher was "the origin of all the events that have occurred, including the barbaric aggression that injured our players."

Yet what about Fifa's responsibility to fair play too? It appeared indolent in responding to last week's hooligan attack on the Algerian team bus in Cairo, an incident which, had it befallen one of football's glamour teams, would have caused international outrage.

Fifa is now reviewing reports belatedly but Egypt's football authorities may feel fortunate to have this second opportunity since their basic security was shown to be wholly inadequate.

Three Algerian players were injured by rocks hurled through the vehicle's windows and had to dive to the floor, screaming. One, Khaled Lemmouchia, left with glass embedded in his head, reckoned the game should never have gone ahead, a verdict shared by their team doctor who said players were in no fit state mentally to play.

"I scarcely dare think what would have happened if we had equalised," complained Lemmouchia. "We, the players, would have been in danger."

And not just the players. Thirty-two people were injured in post-match skirmishes while beyond Cairo, the aftermath quickly became even more alarming; in Algeria, Egyptian nationals had their homes attacked and millions of dollars of damage was caused to Egyptian businesses.

Overseas, in Marseille as six boats in the port were set alight, 500 police had to quell clashes between Egyptian and Algerian immigrant youths. So now this most sensitive of play-offs has been placed in the protective hands of Sudan, which will host the conflagration at the rickety old Al-Merreikh Stadium in Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman.

"We have put all our security forces on their highest level of alert," declared Khartoum state governor Abderrahman al-Khidr. More than 15,000 police – nearly one to every two spectators in a 35,000 crowd – will try to keep order.

Egypt won the draw to stage the game on its neighbour's territory – Algeria had wanted it in Tunisia – and yet such is the sporting rivalry between the Sudanese and the 'Pharoahs' that, ironically, Algeria will probably be hailed like the home side, with 48 plane loads of 'Desert Foxes' fans having jetted in.

In response, Egypt has handed out free tickets to under-30s, as well as free transport and accommodation to 2,000 making the journey south. Thousands will end up heading to segregated camp sites, situated several kilometres apart.

"They beat our wives and our guys in Egypt ... we are standing ready to kick their behinds if they do something to us," one Algerian fan said at Khartoum airport yesterday.

"We don't want to fight but if they come after us we will defend the flag." Fifa officials must have heard this and simply offered up a silent prayer. Only a game?